Entering the discovery phase

Utilising the discovery phase is all about unearthing opportunity, creating alignment and defining objectives. It’s a chance to get first-hand input from your target audience, which can shape your understanding of the objective and inform marketing output, whether it be a website, campaign or brand reposition. This makes your target users a part of the process and demonstrates a commitment from you to build a solution around their needs, motivations and challenges.

The makeup of the discovery phase will differ from company to company, but here are a few ideas for gathering valuable insights that can fuel your next project.

User testing
Carrying out user testing at the top of a project will give you a fresh data set that can inform the planning of a new website or product, shaping navigation, content strategy and the user experience as a whole. This kind of first-hand input from your target users will give you great insight into their needs and behaviours, allowing you to collect valuable data and incorporate it into the development of the final outcome. Building user testing into multiple junctures in the process will give you an opportunity to produce comparable data. And whether you’re using an online service like Userbrain, or recruiting participants for an in-person session, you know that the opinions of your target audience are being represented. Involving your target users in the development process will inspire trust in the wider audience.

When conducting user testing sessions, make sure that you provide clear exercises for the participants to complete. The tasks should be designed to test different elements of the user journey and experience, helping you to gauge performance and identify areas for improvement. Create scenarios and tasks that users will regularly encounter. This will give you relevant insights and data.

Stakeholder workshops
Involving key stakeholders in the process helps to create alignment and clarity around the project, as well as identifying key objectives and KPIs. It’s also an opportunity to onboard these groups and galvanise support for the project, giving them a voice and a platform to make their thoughts heard. If stakeholders feel that they are actively contributing they will be more motivated. The reality for most brands and organisations is that they are having to serve multiple audiences, particularly when it comes to websites, and understanding their perspectives is key to meeting their needs. By not involving these groups, you also run the risk of meeting with resistance further on in the project process.

Stakeholders can be anyone who will be impacted by the website, campaign or marketing that you want to deliver, or anyone who has an impact on your ability to deliver it. They could be part of your target audience, or members of your staff. Managing their expectations and harnessing their enthusiasm, influence, and expertise will help you to deliver a successful outcome. Documenting their views on core objectives, challenges and needs will help to shape your understanding of the problem you are looking to solve and ensure that you are approaching subsequent project development from a position of inclusion and knowledge, producing work that is sensitive to the needs of your stakeholders. 

Public consultations
This is something that tends to be more relevant to charities and organisations dealing with the public. Public consultations can provide valuable insights from people within your community and target demographics. They can enhance your understanding of how brands, messaging and services are perceived by the people you are providing them for, as well as support the delivery of the outcome, by ensuring you meet the needs of those who require them. At 6rs, we’ve recruited and consulted with groups of people to gain their opinions when working with charities that provide services to their community. This is a great opportunity to unearth new ideas, get first-hand insights and demonstrate transparency and inclusion. When carrying out consultations, be clear on the information you need from the consultation and what you intend to do with it afterwards. Getting buy in from senior leadership is critical to the success of this kind of discovery exercise and there needs to be a commitment to implementing change as a result of the insights you gather from the consultation.

Data gathering
Making sure you have all the necessary data and information to hand is crucial when undertaking any project, but companies often just skim the surface and allow a project to continue with a fairly shallow understanding of the current position and performance. Utilising any existing data sources such as Google Analytics can be supplemented by introducing other tools to gather additional information. For example, Hotjar is an effective tool for reviewing user behaviour on websites and can add an extra layer of understanding to a web brief, highlighting issues and opportunities that may not have been on your radar previously. Auditing all existing assets and materials is sensible when embarking on any large-scale project. We always recommend looking at the brand first to make sure it’s properly reflecting the vision and values of the organisation. There may be an opportunity to compliment it with some new assets, or review the usage of it in relation to the website or marketing campaign that you’re looking to deliver.

Surveys
Conducting surveys can be an effective way of carrying out market research and reaching your target demographic for their opinion. There are some very reliable platforms that enable you to create a questionnaire and specifically seek participants from your audience(s). This can produce feedback that is uninhibited by the formality of a workshop or consultation. It also allows you to carefully craft your questions around your needs for the project and gather a comprehensive data set that can be used to fuel a project, campaign or cause. The content and statistics that are compiled from the responses can be used to create meaningful reports, white papers, social content and other PR opportunities. The insights obtained from surveying your audience can validate an intended approach, or highlight the merits of pursuing an alternative course of action.

Whilst working with a national travel organisation that was looking to rebrand this year, we created and deployed a series of surveys that gathered input from the company’s customers, industry peers and staff, as well as the general public, seeking opinion on the existing brand and the needs that a refreshed identity would have to meet. This gave the leadership team a 360˚ data set that could inform their intentions for the brand and its positioning in the market place. The results collected were circulated to key stakeholders and validated their approach. It was also used to fuel outward facing marketing and social activity.

Investing in an effective discovery phase will deepen your understanding of the project purpose and ultimately help you to deliver an outcome that comprehensively meets the needs of your audience. It clarifies the problem that you’re looking to solve. The discovery process can create great value at the beginning of a project but it doesn’t have to be a one-off activity. It should be conducted at the beginning of a project, repeated where appropriate during its lifespan, and re-visited whenever business or audience circumstances change. This keeps design decisions relevant, informed, and based on the needs of the users.

If you’re looking to integrate discovery into your project then get in touch and we’ll help you connect with your audience and stakeholders.